“I knew you would, for you are a man of sense. I am no advocate, I need scarcely say, for a marriage where these is no mutual esteem. That could hardly prosper! Certainly, if Cecilia holds Charlbury in distaste, it would have been wrong to have compelled her to marry him.”
“Generous!”
“I hope so,” she said gravely. “I should not wish to be other than generous toward your sisters — toward all your family! It must be one of my chief objects to promote their welfare, and I assure you I mean to do so!”
“Thank you,” he said, in a colorless tone.
She turned a bracelet upon her arm. “You are inclined to regard Miss Stanton-Lacy with indulgence, I know, but I think you will allow that her influence in this house has not been a happy one, in many respects. Without her encouragement, I venture to think that Cecilia would not have behaved as she has.”
“I don’t know that. You would not say that her influence was not a happy one had you seen her nursing Amabel, supporting both my mother and Cecilia in their anxiety That is something I can never forget.”
“I am sure no one could wish you to. One is glad to be able to praise her conduct in that emergency without reserve.”
“I owe it to her also that I stand now upon such easy terms with Hubert. There she has done nothing but good!”
“Well, on that point we have always differed, have we not?” she said pleasantly. “But I have no wish to argue with you on such a subject! I only hope that Hubert continues to go on well.”
“Very well. I might almost say too well, for what must the ridiculous fellow do but think himself in honor bound to make up some lost study during this vacation! He is gone off on a reading party!” He laughed suddenly. “If he does not fall into a melancholy through all this virtue, I must surely expect to hear that he is in some shocking scrape soon!”